Category: November 2007

Well the smoke has cleared and though the picture is not pretty I can live with it.  I won’t go into details on work but let’s just say my week was pretty much ruined and on my wedding anniversary to boot.  That was Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday of last week were in anticipation of the Wednesday meeting.  Thursday was still recooperating from Wednesday but also spent staying late and working 13 hours on something that someone else didn’t bother to do.  That’s just another story all together.

Then Friday we get to the good potentially horrific part.  Walker’s first parent / teacher conference.  It was suggested that I bring three blocks with me so that everytime she said something I didn’t like I could take a block away.  If you are a first time reader you may want to read Two Blocks Down… Only one to go.  I really really liked this suggestion.  But of course my logical side of my brain said I better not do that.  Oh…but I really wanted to and I know a few readers out there wished I had.  He did fine and he is learning the things that he suppose to.  Keep in mind that the children get a prize if they go a whole month without losing a block.  I didn’t journal about it but he lost 3 blocks on November 1st.  Apparently he wants to get it out of the way early in the month.  If that’s the plan then I am okay with it.  Achieving the goals you set out for yourself is important.

So now we are at Friday and my husband and I are trying to get away for two nights.  Being that our 9th wedding anniversary was on November 14th we were in desperate need of getting away.  We have never been gone for two nights since the kids were born.  We have gone away for one night but never two.  This was certainly an adjustment for us as well as the kids.  We called the next day to check in on the kids and Walker asked if we were going to come pick him up because he wanted to go home.  Okay I have taken a mental note not to call next time.  Guilt, guilt, guilt.  The guilt did eventually wear off.  The weekend ended up being good and relaxing. 

We went to Yankee Candle and went out to lunch and dinner.  We have officially started our Christmas shopping.  As with everyone else we have to start early because it gets to be too expensive to lump in out of one paycheck.  I just want to give my kids the kind of Christmas that puts a sparkle in their eyes without depleting our monetary resources. 

Well it is Monday… again… and this will be a short week because of the Thanksgiving holiday.  I am thankful for that.  I do all the cooking for the upcoming feast.  We don’t have many people but there is alot of food.

So I will end this entry with a few things that I am thankful for (regardless of the terrible, horrible no good kind of week).

• husband
• children
• roof over our heads
• food to feed our family and sometimes others
• having children that still want to cuddle at night
• Friends that know when to call, know what not to say, know what to say and when to say it.
• Calvin (cat) is recovering from an unknown illness that almost took her life two weeks ago.
• Having a dad that loves my children so much he calls almost every night just to say goodnight.
• Having a brother that still comes for holiday feast and donates the turkey to boot.
• Having a child that given a book of toys catelog only circled one out of a possible hundred.  To me that means that I have not raised a greedy child.
• Having a two year that has gone through months of speech therapy and can now say mommy and daddy.

These are just a few things that I am thankful for.  So though last week was a terrible, horrible no good kind of a week this week is looking better.

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

I received this via e-mail and thought it worth posting. Unfortunately I do not know who wrote this but thought it bears repeating. Though I am not the most religious person you will ever meet I thank our U.S. troops everyday for giving up their lives to protect the lives of the rest of us.

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was a vowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you exactly 15 minutes." The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God. I’m still waiting." It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.

The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you do that?"

The Marine calmly replied, "God was too busy today protecting America’s soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid shit and act like an asshole. So, He sent me."

No you are not mistaken I do not have a child named Jack but another parent and reader of this blog told me a story that sums up childhood fairly clearly.  The preface to the story was that the mother received a call from the principals office to advise the parents what had happened at school. 

"Jack, how was school today?"  asked Mom with more knowledge of how the day went than she was letting on.

"Well I was more good than bad… but just not perfect."

As a parent and putting in perspective that kids will make mistakes but hopefully they learn from them and as long as the evil doesn’t outweigh the good than maybe… perhaps… things will be okay.